Even though you might be able to pick your partner, you certainly can't pick your partner’s family. Opinions and personalities sometimes just don’t click, and you might find yourself in a nightmare situation. Playing into this vibe that so many people know a little bit too well, Max and Sam Eggers co-penned the script for The Front Room, a project that would also serve as the pair’s feature-length directorial debut. Bringing in an absolute icon to play their leading lady, the pair cast singer and actress Brandy Norwood as a woman shouldering the wrath of her disapproving mother-in-law (Kathryn Hunter).
The Front Room feels like a mixture of movies, including Rosemary’s Baby, Hereditary, and Monster-in-Law with an extra dose of “did that really just happen?”. Norman (Andrew Burnap) and Belinda (Norwood) are under copious amounts of stress while they prepare for the arrival of their baby. The former has long since been estranged from his immediate family, but that all changes when he receives a strange phone call from his mother, Solange (Hunter), informing him that his father has passed away. Feeling for his widowed mother, Norman invites Solange to move in with him and Belinda – an offer he quickly comes to regret. As time passes, Solange’s true nefarious nature makes itself more and more evident, but the final straw lands when it becomes abundantly clear that she plans to raise the baby herself. Thrown into a nightmare situation, Belinda is forced to battle it out with her mother-in-law to ensure her child’s safety.
Split down the middle with critics, The Front Room landed a 42% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn’t too surprising considering that campy horror films are an underappreciated genre. Financially, the movie earned just under $4 million at the box office, but it was doomed from the start, considering that it shared a release date with one of this year’s biggest money-makers – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Still, it isn’t too shabby of a start for the brothers of critically-celebrated filmmaker, Robert Eggers, who will soon be looking to terrify audiences with his upcoming feature, Nosferatu.
Brandy Norwood’s History With Horror
Before she was battling it out with Hunter, Norwood was in one of the most iconic horror features of the ‘90s: I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. The 1998 movie was a direct sequel to 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer, and fully played into the hype surrounding slasher films in the latter part of the decade. Because Norwood’s character was one of the surviving members of the party (it can’t be a spoiler if the movie came out more than two decades ago), fans have been wondering whether she will appear in the upcoming Jennifer Kaytin Robinson-helmed production. With Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt officially getting back into the action, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Norwood is the next name added to the call sheet.
You can stream The Front Room when it moves onto Max on January 3.
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A psychological horror that follows Belinda, a newly pregnant woman, whose life turns into a nightmare when her estranged mother-in-law moves in. As the sinister presence takes hold, Belinda must protect her unborn child from her diabolical guest.
Release Date September 6, 2024
Director Max Eggers , Sam Eggers
Cast Brandy Norwood , Andrew Burnap , Kathryn Hunter , Neal Huff , David Manis , Mary Catherine Wright , Ellen J. Maddow , Mary Testa
Runtime 94 Minutes
Writers Max Eggers , Sam Eggers
English (US) ·